Nuance Introduces Nina for Amazon Alexa, First Enterprise Virtual Assistant for the Smart Home

BURLINGTON, Mass., June 01, 2017 -- As part of a series of advancements in conversational AI introduced today, Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) unveiled Nina for Amazon® Alexa™, the first intelligent enterprise virtual assistant that integrates with the popular internet-of-things (IoT) device. With today’s news, Nuance delivers Nina as an Alexa Skill, allowing organizations to leverage their investment in Nina to engage through Alexa-powered devices.

By integrating Nina with Smart Home IoT devices, Nuance is enabling a new way for consumers to connect with their bank, airline, telco and retail brands, without needing to dial a phone number. For leading brands, Nuance makes it easy to service customers through new devices, leveraging existing investments in Nuance customer engagement solutions.

To see Nina for Amazon Alexa in action, go here.

“It’s truly amazing to think about the expanding channels through which consumers can engage with a brand for service,” said Robert Weideman, executive vice president and general manager, Enterprise Division, Nuance. “With Nina, we’re able to provide enterprises with the ability to design a VA once, then deploy it across the channels on which their customers choose to engage, securely and affordably. Nina for Amazon Alexa is the first example where Nina enables engagement through IoT devices, and the first example where two virtual assistants – Nuance Nina and Amazon Alexa – work together to deliver a superior customer experience.”

Introduced in 2012, Nina was the first virtual assistant for customer service, and has since evolved to become a powerful “design once, deploy many” customer engagement platform that supports a consistent experience across Web, Mobile, IVR, Messaging, (e.g. Facebook Messenger and SMS), and now IoT channels such as the Amazon Echo via Alexa. Nina provides organizations with the ability to efficiently and effectively broaden their customer engagement footprint, as opposed to building implementations separately for each channel. In this way, Nina significantly lowers the total cost of development and ownership, and also gives organizations control over their brand experience. Finally, by leveraging Nina, organizations can ensure data is secure and private, and is not monetized by other platforms for advertising or financial gain. 

Nina leverages Nuance’s unparalleled conversational, cognitive and human-assisted AI capabilities to deliver superior, multi-channel, automated customer service experiences for the consumers. Nina provides an innovative blend of automated and live chat assistance, which delivers unmatched levels of customer satisfaction, and cost savings for the enterprise. The award-winning Nuance Nina has been adopted globally by leading brands and organizations, including the Australian Taxation Office, Coca-Cola, Domino’s, Garanti Bank, ING Netherlands, IP Australia, Jetstar, Swedbank, USAA Bank, Windstream and more. Most recently, Domino’s Australia announced that Nina is powering the Domino’s DRU Assist virtual assistant.

Nuance recently received the highest combined rating amongst Intelligent Assistant and bot vendors in the newly-published report by Opus Research, “Decision Makers’ Guide to Enterprise Intelligent Assistants.”* Nuance outscored all other Intelligent Assistant (IA) and bot vendors that were evaluated and ranked highest for its intelligent virtual assistant, underscoring Nuance’s leadership in the industry. 

Nuance is a recognized leader in providing automated and intelligent AI-powered customer engagement solutions to large enterprises around the world. There are over 6,500 enterprises using Nuance’s self-service technologies, processing an estimated 14 billion transactions each year. Nuance has over 700 professional services team members who integrate the Company’s customer service solutions deeply within the back-office systems of nearly every major telecommunications and financial institution around the world, as well as leading healthcare, travel, and government organizations. In a single platform, Nuance is the only vendor to combine the tooling, intelligence and analytics of natural language processing (NLP) and cognitive technologies, as well as integrated security, to deliver automated and assisted solutions targeted to Enterprise needs.

For more information about Nuance’s Nina, please visit here.  

About Nuance Communications, Inc.

Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world.  Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with devices and systems. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance’s proven applications.  For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.

Trademark reference: Nuance and the Nuance logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners.

Contact Information

For Press
Erica Hill
Nuance Communications, Inc.
Tel: 781-888-5518
[email protected]